I’m on to you, Ken Tremendous

Note from Tom – This is the famous post that many of you have heard about but few have actually seen. This afternoon, the writers over at FireJoeMorgan.com revealed their identities to the world. I decided that it was time to publish this post, so we could all appreciate just how great Glenn’s investigation skills were during this historic period in the blog’s history. Without further ado, the post.

We of this blog don’t exactly hide our admiration of the blog Fire Joe Morgan. We’re the same way with NBC’s “The Office.” FJM turns bad sportswriting on its head, being consistently funny in the process. The blog’s contributors all go by pseudonyms; one of the main contributors goes by “Ken Tremendous.” Tremendous is generally the one to make fun of “JoeChats,” chat sessions Joe Morgan participates in with espn.com users where he almost never provides a substantial answer. Invariably, Tremendous’ biting rebuttals to Morgan’s “responses” prove way more entertaining than the chats themselves. Tremendous excels at critiquing bad work by all writers, however, and he is arguably the best contributor FJM has.

Consistent humor is also the calling card of “The Office;” 41miles creator Tom said in another post that there has never been a single unfunny episode. The driving force behind this consistency is excellence in writing. One of the show’s main staff writers is Michael Schur (pictured). He has been with the show since the first season and has written or co-written some of the series’ best episodes. He is also gaining more notoriety for playing salesman Dwight’s socially clueless cousin (and farm co-worker) Mose in a couple episodes. He is proving to be invaluable to the show in more ways than one.

What do these things have to do with one another, you ask? A short time ago, I wouldn’t have thought they were related at all myself. Then, some things that will be explained throughout the duration of this post fell into place. Bit after bit of evidence made the story all the more plausible, and now, armed with some pieced-together factoids, I’m suggesting one thing and one thing only: Michael Schur is Ken Tremendous.

This idea of mine (and I’m pretty confident no one else has come up with it) starts with another blog called Things I’ve Bought That I Love, an entertaining blog describing exactly what the title indicates. There are several listed contributors, but far and away the most prolific is “Mindy Ephron.” This is a pseudonym for Mindy Kaling, who happens to play Kelly on “The Office,” and also writes for the show. She is not nearly as concerned with protecting her anonymity as the bloggers at FJM – she sometimes accompanies posts with pictures of herself. Anyway, on the sidebar of her blog is a list of contributors. Among them is the name “Ken Tremendous.” Now, this alone is certainly not sufficient to support my idea, but it’s a good starting point – Kaling must know Tremendous somehow, and it’s as likely as anything else that he’s one of her coworkers on “The Office.” Another contributor on the blog is listed as “Stupnitsky,” and this is almost certainly Gene Stupnitsky, another member of the show’s writing staff. This makes it all the more plausible that Ken Tremendous might be one of her colleagues, too.

I came across a couple more clues in an interview Tremendous did with scout.com last year. It’s a fun read and gives some insight into how FJM got started in the first place, as well as the mindsets of the site’s bloggers. In addition, he provides a couple interesting tidbits that lend more credence to my crazy idea. At one point, he says of the FJM crew, “Most of us are professional writers in the entertainment industry.” Obviously, this fits Michael Schur. But, you may be saying, there are a lot of professional writers in the entertainment industry. You are correct, but Tremendous narrows the potential field some with a comment he makes later: “I lived in New York for a while.” Again, a fairly innocuous comment. Lots of people live or have lived in New York. Millions, actually. However, how many professional writers in the entertainment industry lived in New York for a while (Schur was a writer for “Saturday Night Live”) and no longer do (“The Office” shoots in California)? There must be fewer still who have lived in New York, no longer do, and also know Mindy Kaling. The pieces are starting to fall into place.

Then there’s the Red Sox factor. The bloggers of FJM are all Sox fans. Schur is from Connecticut, which is certainly a part of Red Sox Nation. This brings us to the matter of the last “Office” episode he wrote, Dunder Mifflin Infinity. at one point in the episode, the company’s co-founder, Robert Dunder, is telling a rambling, aimless story in which he mentions several people he has known. Among them is a man named Jerry Trupiano. It just so happens that this Trupiano fellow shares a name with the former play-by-play voice of the Boston Red Sox. Seems like a subtle shout-out from a Sox fan, doesn’t it? The kind of Sox fan who is so passionate he’d write for a baseball blog?

I was rather fond of this Schur=Tremendous idea, so much so that I shot an email to Ken Tremendous himself. In response to my long-winded explanation of my idea similar to what I’m providing here, Ken wrote: “Interesting theory. If I am not Mike Schur, I may pretend to be. Sounds like an interesting guy. And a Sox fan.” Here, something was clearly up. One of the main indicators of this was Ken referring to him as “Mike” rather than “Michael.” I have never seen a formal credit where Schur is not referenced as “Michael.” As such, I would assume anyone who refers to him as “Mike” knows him at least moderately well. At this point, I’m pretty sure that if Tremendous somehow isn’t Schur, he’s some writer for “The Office” who’s been there long enough to get to know Schur pretty well. Many people can be eliminated using some context clues from Tremendous’ blogging. The fact that he uses a male-sounding pseudonym, as well as the fact that he often mentions “Mrs. Tremendous” (Schur is married), would seem to eliminate Mindy Kaling and Jennifer Celotta. (Kaling would also be eliminated under the assumption that she doesn’t hold multiple blogging identities.) Paul Lieberstein is not married, eliminating him. Greg Daniels is, but Tremendous said in the scout.com interview that the FJM bloggers keep their anonymity for fear of getting fired if their bosses found out how much time they were spending on the site. Daniels is the boss, so it’s hard to imagine him going to the trouble. B.J. Novak is also not married, and I’m pretty sure Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg aren’t either. Who does that leave, again?

Okay, so now I’m seriously doubting the possibility that Tremendous is anyone other than Schur. All these little coincidences are really adding up, in my mind. Then, on October 18, Tremendous dropped a bombshell on the blog: “Mrs. Tremendous is expecting.” Now, I don’t think I’m exactly a private eye here (or even much of an investigative reporter), but when you combine everything I’ve said with that announcement, then add in this article…I mean, come on. It’s right there in the open. How can it NOT be him?

Finally, it occurred to me that FJM has been operating for a while – since April 2005, to be exact. According to imdb.com, Schur was married on October 9, 2005. So I headed to the site’s archives: surely, Ken Tremendous would not have posted anything on this day if my idea is correct. He didn’t. Two days before, though, on Friday, October 7, he had this to say: “Also, this will be my last post for a while, as I am getting married on Sunday, and Mrs. Tremendous and I will be galavanting through Europe for a week.” Hmm. Sunday. Two days after Friday. Friday was October 7, and 7+2=9. The only source I have says he got married on October 9. This clinches it. In Ken Tremendous’ own words, this shows “beyond a shadow of a fraction of a smidgeon of a blorgtion of a flernson of a doubt” that my crazy idea was not only crazy, but in fact correct as well. It has to be. This stuff adds up perfectly. I am not a raving lunatic – at least, not for this reason.

So yes, I am indeed on to you, Ken Tremendous. And, I guess, Michael (Mike?) Schur. My initial promise to not tell Greg Daniels stands. And even if he knew, I think your job would be safe. And enjoy your beloved Sox becoming a juggernaut. Honestly, between them, the Pats, and BC football (and maybe even the Celtics once the season starts), the only loss suffered by anything associated with New England recently appears to be the anonymity of one of its comedy writers. The rest of us will take whatever victories we can get.

NOTE FROM TOM: After Glenn wrote this post, I contacted Schur and sent him a copy of it. He complimented Glenn’s incredible fact-finding skills, and said that we had the right to run it if we wanted. But he requested, for personal reasons, that we didn’t. So we pulled the story from the site and it sat in the archives for a few months. During that time, I was treated to a wonderful interview with him, and Glenn has since written to him many times concerning FJM. We wish all 3 writers the best of luck, and hope that their inboxes aren’t flooded with “PLZ can i be a holly wood t.v. writer to??”